The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1887-02-05
CRIME IN HIGH LIFE.
Causes Which Have Led WelI-to-Do nj,
to Commit Defalcatfons ana Ho...onR..

Causes Which Have Led Well.to-no Man
to Commit Declarations and Forgeries.
The recent defalcations by men of the
highest social standing have not only
greatly shocked the public mind. but
they have aroused a great deal of re-
Election upon the probable causes of
such conduct in such men. MANY
crimes of the worst kind are at least
Ineligible. Eugene Aram murders
Clarke for money. Old MIR. White, in
Salem, was murdered by men who
would gain by his death. There are
also crimes of passion. of anger, of
jealousy. of revenge, which are all
comprehensive in certain sense,
Then there are crimes which are no
crimes, as when starving boy steals a
leg of mutton, in which case the moral
guilt disappears.
But when man is not only of com.
Portable pecuniary condition, but Is
rich; when he is Tapped in luxury and
ease; carefully educated and trained in
the most refined and exemplary society,
in which the mere suspicion Of dishon.
esty is fatali when neither circum-
stance nor health nor temperament
soliclts him to dishonor, and he is per-
fectly conscious of the unspeakable
consequences of his conduct to those
whom he loves tenderly; when there is
no conceivable temptation or reason or
excuse, within or without, no apparent
weakness of the moral sense, no
f0 Vu tar
denly proves to be thief and
swindler, and is SO overwhelmed with
the discovery of his dishonesty that he
kills himself-what is the explanationp
1t is a mystery, and all the pro-
founder because Of the meanness of the
obvious motive.
When the starving boy steals food,
we say the moral guilt vanishes, al
though the English law used to hang
him for it, but had no penalty for Col.
onel Charters, or for the Duke of
Queensbury, who was a hereditary
law-maker. In the case we are con-
sidering, however, the only motive is
inexpressibly contemplate. 1t is the
wish to paint the lily, to gild the gold.
The man who has one yacht would have
two yachts. His dinner service is of
SevPes, but he would have another of
Dresden. His horse is the tleetest OF
horses, but he would have pair. He
has fresh figs daily from his green.
granates also His house is costly and
beautiful, but he would rival the AL.
hambra. His wife's diamond tiara
dazzles every beholder, but she must
add to it a necklace of black pearls.
These are his aims, and for these he
dishonors his name, blows ont his
brains, and wounds irremediably the
hearts that fondly love him.
His crime is the result of an undue
eXaltation of wealth, and such exalta-
ton is the bane and peril of American
society. 10 penetrate the charmed
pale of society" is the instinct of
wealth, and in a country where there is
no social hierarchy, wealth can have
and does have its way. It is one adj
of a society of class that wealth
can not buy its way beyond its caste.
RI. h. H., indeed, may condescend to |
eat your exquisite dinners and ad-
mire Your precious collection, but you
are not therefore admitted ad |
CAMDEN. The blue blood, whatever |
that sacred fluid may be, flows in the
veins of yonder beldam, shriveled in
body and purse, and she instinctively |
takes naughty precedence of the gem
crusted beauty who flashes with new
'plendor upon the court. But the
beauty knows and the husband knows,
md they both know that everybody |
else knows, that all the gems of Col
,onda can not be transmitted into one
1rop of that mystic blood.
But in country where you can break
INTO the sacred pale with bar of gold,
everybody knows that the pit out of
which social distinction is digged is
gold mine. To scale society is only to
climb golden stair. The more gold
he more distinction. Not rank for
public service, coronet or Westmin-
'ter Abbey, not the noble tradition of
l long line of ancestors whispering
'ternly noblesse 0btige, but mere pro.
use and splendid expenditure, will
open the awful gates and seat You at
he highest table. And it is the plain
moral of all the recent betrayal OF
rust, the meme. meme. flashing upon
he wall of the banqueting chamber,
hat while we accept money as the
'redontial and passport, instead OF
Ictual service, actual accomplishment
md distinction, we put premium
ipon dishonesty and robbery.
This tendencyis encouraged by moth.
ng more than by the reports in the
newspapers of the trivial details of the
ives of rich people. The dinners and
he drives of Midas are of as much in.
rinsic public interest when he earns
en- dollars week as when his income
$ ten thousand dollars a day. The
,nly reason that they are recorded in
he latter event is that his income is i'm.
nense. This casts a prodigious CLAM.
'ur upon the mere fact Of wealth, and
realty strengthens the temptation to
btain it at any cost. The daily an.
louncement that Mr.. and Mrs. Bonan-
a yesterday entertained Mr.. and Mrs.
inlch at dinner is not merely a ludic.
Gus imitation of the foreign gazette OF
recognized social hierarchy, but il lie
stimulant to get within the circle the
Incidents of whose social intercourse
re recorded like those of royalty or of
rlstocracy. The key to that circle is
key of gold, and the stimulant incites
be legion who crave that notoriety
lore than any other prize to get the